Cartoonists Rush Onto the Web

Posted on August 15, 1997

The Professional Cartoonists Index has added daily updating editorial cartoons from twenty seven top newspaper editorial cartoonists, including Pulitzer Prize winners Mike Luckovich, Jeff MacNelly, Signe Wilkinson and Mike Peters. The site is host to the largest collection of current, updating cartoons on the web, including strips like Non-Sequitur, Shoe, One Big Happy, Mother Goose & Grimm, Dennis the Menace and many more--all run with the permission and participation of the cartoonists. The Professional Cartoonists Index also features a complete index to the nearly 600 cartoonist sites on the web with no links to amateur or fan sites.

The web has grown into a thriving showcase for cartoonists around the world but casual web surfers miss most of the show by going to the two most popular cartoon web sites, United Media (Dilbert) and Universal Press Syndicate--sites which show only the cartoonists that they represent, and only a small fraction of the great work on the web.

The Professional Cartoonists Index is maintained by syndicated cartoonist, Daryl Cagle, who is first vice president in charge of the internet for the National Cartoonists Society (NCS). Cagle made a deal on behalf of the NCS with Richmond Virginia based internet server, "I-Pipe," to host NCS member cartoon sites at no cost to the cartoonists. More than forty top cartoonists have set up I-Pipe web sites with more cartoonists coming online all the time. Cagle's unique role as a cartoonist coordinating his colleagues' move to the web is what makes the Professional Cartoonists Index work.

"The NCS will soon offer banner advertising for member sites, making the web a compelling business opportunity for cartoonists and hastening the flow of cartoons onto the web," said Cagle, "Cartoons are very popular on the web, but cartoonists have been slow to embrace the internet because it hasn't been clear how to make money from it, and because of the learning curve and cost of putting up cartoon web sites. We're solving these problems for our member cartoonists. The rush of cartoons onto the web is just starting and it is bound to change the profession."

The Professional Cartoonists Index also includes a popular cartoon caption contest sponsored by Metacreations and archives of Cagle's own newspaper panel cartoon, "TRUE!" The TRUE cartoons are available for web sites to run for free as an updating remote in-line linked feature.